Strikes by thousands of crew members cost BA £150m over 22 days of walkouts in 2010. Photograph: Steve Parsons/PA

A group of British Airways cabin crew have accused the airline of discrimination over the withdrawal of travel concessions during strikes two years ago.

The allegation of indirect racial discrimination is being heard at an employment tribunal, where five air stewards are seeking compensation of up to £8,000 each. A total of 30 staff are seeking redress from BA because they live outside England and relied on discounted BA fares in order to commute into and out of Heathrow airport.

The lawyer representing the cabin crew said that as well as seeking compensation, the staff wanted to ensure that no travel ban was imposed in the future. Alison Humphry, the claimants' solicitor, from Russell Jones & Walker part of Slater & Gordon Lawyers, said: "Our argument is that the blanket withdrawal of the staff travel concessions was a disproportionately large stick with which to beat those particular workers who suffered particular detriment because of their reliance on the concessions to get to work."

The claimants' legal team argues that there were less discriminatory ways in which BA could have implemented the ban. "These employees had been allowed to establish their domestic lives within their country of nationality and the withdrawal of concessions meant that suddenly, for the foreseeable future, their journeys to work would be extremely expensive and inconvenient," Humphry said.

Some cabin crew lost about £2,000 in buying full-price BA tickets to get to and from work while the travel ban was in place, Humphry said. The five claimants at the tribunal are from France, Italy, Spain and Scotland.

A BA spokesperson said: "We are resisting the claims being made against the airline." At the time of the strikes the then BA chief executive, Willie Walsh, said he would not reinstate the staff travel scheme in full because it was for "those who show loyalty to the company, not those who try to damage its profits".

The strikes by cabin crew affiliated to the Unite trade union were originally about reductions in crew levels, but the withdrawal of travel concessions in retaliation became one of the most intractable elements of the dispute. The strikes by thousands of crew members cost BA £150m over 22 days of walkouts in 2010.

The settlement of the dispute last summer included the return of the staff travel perks, but not the reversal of the reductions in onboard crew levels that triggered the dispute. More than 6,500 crew backed the deal. The tribunal continues this week.